1 2008 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved. 1 10 JavaScript: Arrays 2008 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved. 2 10.1 Introduction • Arrays – Data structures consisting of related data items – Sometimes called collections of data items • JavaScript arrays – “dynamic” entities that can change size after they are created 2 2008 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved. 3 10.2 Arrays • An array is a group of memory locations – All have the same name and normally are of the same type (although this attribute is not required in JavaScript) • Each individual location is called an element • An element may be referred to by giving the name of the array followed by index of the element in square brackets ([]) 2008 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved. 4 10.2 Arrays (Cont.) • The first element in every array is the zeroth element. • The ith element of array c is referred to as c[i-1]. • Array names follow the same conventions as other identifiers • A subscripted array name – can be used on the left side of an assignment to place a new value into an array element – can be used on the right side of an assignment operation to use its value • Every array in JavaScript knows its own length, which it stores in its length attribute and can be found with the expression arrayname.length 3 2008 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved. 5 Fig. 10.1 | Array with 12 elements. 2008 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved. 6 Common Programming Error 10.1 It is important to note the difference between the “seventh element of the array” and “array element seven.” Because array subscripts begin at 0, the seventh element of the array has a subscript of 6, while array element seven has a subscript of 7 and is actually the eighth element of the array. This confusion is a source of “off-by-one” errors. 4 2008 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved. 7 Fig. 10.2 | Precedence and associativity of the operators discussed so far. Operators Associativity Type () [] . left to right highest ++ -- ! right to left unary * / % left to right multiplicative + - left to right additive < <= > >= left to right relational == != left to right equality && left to right logical AND || left to right logical OR ?: right to left conditional = += -= *= /= %= right to left assignment 2008 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved. 8 10.3 Declaring and Allocating Arrays • JavaScript arrays are Array objects. • Creating new objects using the new operator is known as creating an instance or instantiating an object • Operator new is known as the dynamic memory allocation operator 5 2008 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved. 9 Common Programming Error 10.2 Assuming that the elements of an array are initialized when the array is allocated may result in logic errors. 2008 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved. 10 10.4 Examples Using Arrays • Zero-based counting is usually used to iterate through arrays • JavaScript reallocates an Arraywhen a value is assigned to an element that is outside the bounds of the original Array • Elements between the last element of the original Array and the new element have undefined values 6 2008 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved. 11 Fig. 10.3 | Initializing the elements of an array (Part 1 of 3). 1 2 4 5 6 7 8 964 65 When the Search button is pressed, calls function buttonPressed 2008 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved. 48 10.9 Searching Arrays: Linear Search and Binary Search (Cont.) • Binary search algorithm – More efficient than the linear search algorithm – Requires that the array be sorted – Tests the middle element in the array and returns the index if it matches the search key – If not, it cuts the list in half, depending on whether the key is greater than or less than the middle element, and repeats the process on the remaining half of the sorted list – The algorithm ends by either finding an element that matches the search key or reducing the subarray to zero size • Tremendous increase in performance over the linear search – For a one-billion-element array, this is the difference between an average of 500 million comparisons and a maximum of 30 comparisons • The maximum number of comparisons needed for the binary search of any sorted array is the exponent of the first power of 2 greater than the number of elements in the array 25 2008 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved. 49 Fig. 10.11 | Binary search of an array (Part 1 of 5). 1 2 4 5 6 7 8 9Initializing an Array 10 14 49 50 Outputs the subscript and value of every array element in a table 7 2008 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved. 13 Fig. 10.3 | Initializing the elements of an array (Part 3 of 3). 2008 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved. 14 Software Engineering Observation 10.1 JavaScript automatically reallocates an Array when a value is assigned to an element that is outside the bounds of the original Array . Elements between the last element of the original Array and the new element have undefined values. 8 2008 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved. 15 Common Programming Error 10.3 Referring to an element outside the Array bounds is normally a logic error. 2008 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved. 16 Error-Prevention Tip 10.1 When using subscripts to loop through an Array, the subscript should never go below 0 and should always be less than the number of elements in the Array (i.e., one less than the size of the Array ). Make sure that the loop- terminating condition prevents the access of elements outside this range. 9 2008 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved. 17 10.4 Examples Using Arrays (Cont.) • Arrays can be created using a comma-separated initializer list enclosed in square brackets ([]) – The array’s size is determined by the number of values in the initializer list • The initial values of an array can be specified as arguments in the parentheses following new Array – The size of the array is determined by the number of values in parentheses 2008 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved. 18 Fig. 10.4 | Declaring and initializing arrays (Part 1 of 3). 1 2 4 5 6 7 8 9Initializing an Array with a Declaration 10 14 44 45 2008 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved. 20 Fig. 10.4 | Declaring and initializing arrays (Part 3 of 3). 11 2008 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved. 21 10.4 Examples Using Arrays (Cont.) •for…in statement – Enables a script to perform a task for each element in an array – Process is known as iterating over the elements of an array 2008 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved. 22 Fig. 10.5 | Summing elements of an array (Part 1 of 2). 1 2 4 5 6 7 8 9Sum the Elements of an Array 10 11 31 32 2008 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved. 24 Error-Prevention Tip 10.2 When iterating over all the elements of an Array, use a for…in statement to ensure that you manipulate only the existing elements of the Array. Note that a for…in statement skips any undefined elements in the array. 13 2008 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved. 25 Fig. 10.6 | Dice- rolling program using an array instead of a switch (Part 1 of 2). 1 2 4 5 6 7 8 9Roll a Six-Sided Die 6000 Times 10 14 39 40 41Click Refresh (or Reload) to run the script again
42 43 Outputs results in a table 14 2008 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved. 27 10.5 Random Image Generator Using Arrays • Random image generator – Uses a pictures array to store the names of the image files as strings – Accesses the array using a randomized index 2008 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved. 28 Fig. 10.7 | Random image generation using arrays (Part 1 of 2). 1 2 4 5 6 7 8 9Random Image Generator 10 14 26 27 28Click Refresh (or Reload) to run the script again
29 30 Creates an array with the names of the images to choose from Randomly selects an element from the array and appends its value to “.gif\” to create the src attribute’s value 15 2008 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved. 29 Fig. 10.7 | Random image generation using arrays (Part 2 of 2). 2008 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved. 30 10.6 References and Reference Parameters • Two ways to pass arguments to functions (or methods) – pass-by-value – pass-by-reference • Pass-by-value – a copy of the argument’s value is made and is passed to the called function • In JavaScript, numbers, boolean values and strings are passed to functions by value. • Pass-by-reference – The caller gives the called function direct access to the caller’s data and allows it to modify the data if it so chooses – Can improve performance because it can eliminate the overhead of copying large amounts of data, but it can weaken security because the called function can access the caller’s data 16 2008 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved. 31 10.6 References and Reference Parameters (Cont.) • All objects are passed to functions by reference • Arrays are objects in JavaScript, so Arrays are passed to a function by reference – a called function can access the elements of the caller’s original Arrays. • Name of an array – actually a reference to an object that contains the array elements and the length variable 2008 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved. 32 Error-Prevention Tip 10.3 With pass-by-value, changes to the copy of the called function do not affect the original variable’s value in the calling function. This prevents the accidental side effects that so greatly hinder the development of correct and reliable software systems. 17 2008 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved. 33 Software Engineering Observation 10.2 Unlike some other languages, JavaScript does not allow the programmer to choose whether to pass each argument by value or by reference. Numbers, boolean values and strings are passed by value. Objects are passed to functions by reference. When a function receives a reference to an object, the function can manipulate the object directly. 2008 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved. 34 Software Engineering Observation 10.3 When returning information from a function via a return statement, numbers and boolean values are always returned by value (i.e., a copy is returned), and objects are always returned by reference (i.e., a reference to the object is returned). Note that, in the pass-by- reference case, it is not necessary to return the new value, since the object is already modified. 18 2008 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved. 35 10.7 Passing Arrays to Functions • Pass an array as an argument to a function – Specify the name of the array (a reference to the array) without brackets • Although entire arrays are passed by reference, individual numeric and boolean array elements are passed by value exactly as simple numeric and boolean variables are passed – Such simple single pieces of data are called scalars, or scalar quantities – To pass an array element to a function, use the subscripted name of the element as an argument in the function call • joinmethod of an Array – Returns a string that contains all of the elements of an array, separated by the string supplied in the function’s argument – If an argument is not specified, the empty string is used as the separator 2008 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved. 36 Fig. 10.8 | Passing arrays and individual array elements to functions (Part 1 of 3). 1 2 4 5 6 7 8 9Passing arrays and individual array 10 elements to functions 11 54 55 Creates a string containing all the elements in theArray, separated by “ ” Multiplies each element in theArray by 2, which persists after the function has finished Multiplies the array element by 2, but only for the duration of the function 2008 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved. 38 Fig. 10.8 | Passing arrays and individual array elements to functions (Part 3 of 3). 20 2008 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved. 39 Software Engineering Observation 10.4 JavaScript does not check the number of arguments or types of arguments that are passed to a function. It is possible to pass any number of values to a function. JavaScript will attempt to perform conversions when the values are used. 2008 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved. 40 10.8 Sorting Arrays • Sorting data – Putting data in a particular order, such as ascending or descending – One of the most important computing functions • Array object in JavaScript has a built-in method sort – With no arguments, the method uses string comparisons to determine the sorting order of the Array elements – Method sort takes as its optional argument the name of a function (called the comparator function) that compares its two arguments and returns a negative value, zero, or a positive value, if the first argument is less than, equal to, or greater than the second, respectively • Functions in JavaScript are considered to be data – They can be assigned to variables, stored in Arrays and passed to functions just like other data 21 2008 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved. 41 Fig. 10.9 | Sorting an array with sort (Part 1 of 2). 1 2 4 5 6 7 8 9Sorting an Array with Array Method sort 10 33 34 Defines a function comparing integers to be passed to method sort (to replace the default string comparison function) 22 2008 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved. 43 Software Engineering Observation 10.5 Functions in JavaScript are considered to be data. Therefore, functions can be assigned to variables, stored in Arrays and passed to functions just like other data types. 2008 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved. 44 10.9 Searching Arrays: Linear Search and Binary Search • Linear search algorithm – Iterates through the elements of an array until it finds an element that matches a search key, and returns the subscript of the element – If the key is not found, the function returns -1 – If the array being searched is not in any particular order, it is just as likely that the value will be found in the first element as the last – On average, the program will have to compare the search key with half the elements of the array 23 2008 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved. 45 Fig. 10.10 | Linear search of an array (Part 1 of 3). 1 2 4 5 6 7 8 9Linear Search of an Array 10 53 54 Calls function linearSearch on array a with the value input by the user Iterates through every element of the array until the key is found If the key is encountered, the index of the element with the key as its value is returned If the key is not found, -1 is returned 24 2008 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved. 47 Fig. 10.10 | Linear search of an array (Part 3 of 3). 55 56